1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to ventilated roof systems for building structures, and more particularly to a roof system having a ridge vent and an air permeable sealant system.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
It is common to ventilate roofs of building structures to remove stagnant or hot air, with such ventilating systems sometimes including vents in the gables of the building structure, along the soffits or along the ridge or apex of the roof. The vents, of course, are provided to permit the ingress and egress of air and when the vent is along the ridge, the air naturally egresses through the vent from beneath the roof by convection. Ridge vents are typically combined with gable or soffit vents through which air can flow into the space below the roof to encourage a continuous flow of air from the ambient environment, through the space beneath the roof and back to the ambient environment through the ridge vent.
One problem with vents which simply consist of openings in a building structure through which air can readily pass, is that insects, rain or other undesirable elements can also pass through the openings.
Accordingly, it has been discovered with ridge vents that the use of an air permeable material such as a matting of randomly oriented interconnected or reticulated synthetic fibers inhibits the passage of insects or rain while permitting the flow of air. Accordingly, such material provides a desirable air permeable sealant material for use with ridge vents. An example of such a reticulated material in ridge vents is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,561,953, and an example of the reticulated material for use in a ridge vent is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,167,579. Still another venting system for ridge vents is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,154, but the system disclosed therein is useful only on relatively flat roofing. The invention disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,561,953 was developed to overcome the shortcomings of the flat roof system and provides a system wherein the reticulated material is grooved on a bottom surface to conform with the transverse contour of an underlying roof such as might be found on tile roofs, corrugated aluminum roofs, metal roofs having upstanding projections and the like.
A problem with a sealant ridge vent system of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,561,953 or 5,352,154 resides in the fact that the reticulated material rests directly on the underlying roof surface and since the reticulated material is a very open material that does not present a continuous flat, smooth surface to the underlying roof, it does not provide a desirable sealable surface between the ridge vent system and the underlying roof.
Accordingly, it would be desirable that a ridge vent system include a sealant strip that was not only air permeable so that the building structure was adequately ventilated, but also a system whereby the sealant strip could be positively sealed to the underlying roof to prevent the ingress of rain, insects or the like between the sealant strip and the roof.
It is to overcome the shortcomings in prior art systems and to provide a new and improved system for sealing a ridge roof vent that the present invention has been developed.